My boss has challenged me to find as many words as possible for the NIU. Who can help me?

I give up...what's an NIU?

a gizmo

Smartjack!

I've heard many words used interchangeably with "NIU". And like Ed's beef with the RJ-45 bastardization, I understand what people are talking about (whether they correctly use/misuse or slur the term "NIU" to mean):

NID
Smartjack
TNI
network or loop termination point
loopback box
Demarc
customer interface
card nest
mount
ONT
beige box with lights and Adtran/PairGain thingies in them

The truth is that an NIU terminates digital circuits (T1,PRI or ADN) only, though I would also deem the 2/4 wire converters or HDSL/SDSL term points as nearly the same. And while an NIU is a demarc, the term "demarc" is rather general and can refer to all kinds of terminations.

An NIU can be placed into loopback via remote commands, but it is not the same thing as a repeater (and don't get me started on telco techs who accidentally loop-up a repeater while thinking they're on the Z end).

"Customer interface" is OK I suppose, because it IS just that. It just strikes me as a description so generic that it always begs the question as to what service and/or facility was ordered. "Customer interface" covers everything from an old wire-wrap block to a piece of RG-6U w/an F-connector.

NIU - Network Interface Unit.

And as Jeff says, a "Smartjack".

That's all we ever called them, and I installed hundreds (thousands?) of them for multiple carriers.

Of course this was 10 years ago and new terminology may have developed.

Sam

I've never called it anything other than a smartjack

The little box on the wall that you plug your RJ45 cable into.

I had to say it.

I hear Ed screaming!!

if Ed screams in a phone room and no one is around to hear him .....

Niu is an island nation near Tuvalu.

About 30 nautical miles from BaBaLu.

love this

See what happens when you innocently post a wide-open question?

The magic jack...cause that is what it is when it works.

* “Remote Card” ... Hey it’s the “remote end” from THIS side of the demarc. :p

NCTE (Network Channel Terminating Equipment)

On the term “Smart Jack” that term, actually goes back to analog data circuits and was a specific model offer by Westell, Inc... Seems the term has long ago been taken over for the generic telco termination device.

Sorta like any 8P8C plug or jack is referred to as RJ45. Data, specific LEC Modem Jack, even alarm jack. (That is actually RJ31X) Or Kleenex (actually copyrighted) for tissue paper 'snot rag'.

A marketing ploy, no doubt, since everyone knew everything prior to that was a "Dumb Jack".

Justin

The acronym Network Interface Unit or Network Interface Device started popping up with the advent of digital ciruits, 56k and above to the T1 level.

Smart jacks were the generation of Analog Network Channel Terminating Equipment that could be used to check the local loop by sending analog frequencies to the smart jack who would cause it to run a 3 tone slope and other tests eliminating the need for a technician going "box to box" with a tester. Before that the old were not called smart jacks but mostly carried the nickname "829" after the old Bell System analog terminating equipment and always were technician optioned and tested.

The term NCTE came about because a "Channel" is defined as the circuit that goes between the customer at one end and the customer at the other end through the Telco facilities or "Network" and is "Terminated" at the customer locations in "Equipment" owned by the Telco. It originally meant the equipment housing holding the 829, smart jack or NIU but kind of got lost in our fast paced telephone world and now means the entire Telco owned equipment at the customer location.

NIU is what the letters say on the front of the LEC equipment that drops our T1s. You are all correct, they will refer to them as anything BUT an NIU.